A grandfather’s roadside sighting helped lead police to a Spokane arson suspect
Paul Child was driving to a neighbor’s home on a rural road outside Spokane, Washington, on Saturday, with his grandson in the passenger seat, when he noticed a man pacing along the shoulder. The man looked back as the truck passed. It struck Child as peculiar, but not alarming, and he kept going.
About 15 minutes later, after Child picked up his grandson’s friend, he drove back along the same road. The man was still there — this time bent over near the bushes and acting nervous. Child thought little of it until he reached home and his daughter told him a fire had started. He ran outside and saw a plume of smoke rising from the area where he had seen the man.
That roadside encounter made Child a key witness in the investigation into the Old Trails Fire, one of three wildfires that have torn through eastern Washington since Saturday. The blaze was the first of the three to be detected. More than 10,000 acres have burned, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed. Crews were still working to contain the flames Tuesday, with officials saying the fires had not been contained.
Aaron Farinacci, 37, of Spokane, was taken into custody Monday and charged Tuesday with first-degree arson. He appeared in Spokane County Superior Court by video from jail the same day. His bond was set at $1 million, and an arraignment is scheduled for Thursday. Court records did not identify counsel, and efforts to reach an attorney for Farinacci were unsuccessful.
Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said the origin of the Old Trails Fire was “exactly where the witness had seen Mr. Farinacci kneeling in the grass.” A fire investigator found the cause consistent with an open flame — such as a lighter or a match — igniting vegetation, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Farinacci denied starting the fire and denied being in the area. He told deputies he had been walking a route he frequented almost daily. During his first encounter with deputies, he was found with waterproof matches and a butane lighter, but deputies said they did not yet know the fire’s point of origin or source. Investigators later used body-worn camera footage from that encounter to help obtain an arrest warrant Monday, the sheriff said. Farinacci was then arrested “without incident,” and deputies searched his home under a warrant.
Child’s account helped close the gap quickly. After his daughter called 911, Child walked out to notify neighbors and flagged down firefighters and a police officer coming up the road. He gave them a description of the man he had seen. In less than 30 minutes, an officer told him that someone matching that description had been detained. Child, his grandson and his grandson’s friend later confirmed the man was the person they had seen.
This was not the first time Farinacci had drawn the attention of investigators. Last summer, law enforcement contacted him about two other fires, including a suspicious blaze that began near his home, according to the affidavit. He was not arrested or charged in either case.
Farinacci also has a violent criminal history. In 2012, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault in Arizona for the 2010 fatal shooting of his father during an argument about washing dishes, according to court records and the Associated Press. He shot himself during the same incident. Farinacci was sentenced to 12 years in prison and was released in December 2020.
The possibility that one of the fires was deliberately set added another layer of sorrow to an already devastating week. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said the news made a tragic situation even harder to accept.
“It takes a tragic situation and just makes it more heartbreaking,” Ferguson told CNN on Monday night. “To think that much of this damage could have been caused by an individual doing this on purpose.”
Child’s home was not damaged, and he and his family have returned. But the images from Saturday stayed with him: an unfamiliar man at the roadside, a growing column of smoke, and a call that helped investigators connect the dots.